Deer Creek Lutheran Mission

In 1858, the Lutheran Synod of Iowa sent two missionaries to the far northwest, what is now Wyoming, to begin a mission among the Crow. The following year, four pupils from the Mission School at Nevendettelsav, Germany volunteered to contribute to this work. They founded the Deer Creek Mission in the Yellowstone River area of Wyoming, and over the next five years they worked among the Indians "to tell them of God's words and give them the Holy Sacrament." With Indian uprisings on the plains in the mid-1860s, the Deer Creek Mission was disbanded.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The collection consists of the "Kirchenblatt," a Report of Evangelical Lutheran Missionaries to the Indians. Originally written in German, this report was translated in 1938 by a Society staff member. The Report contains the diary of Karl G. Kreps, one of the Indian missionaries, and describes work done among the Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe. Also included in the collection is a manuscript by Franz Matter titled, "In the Service of the Indian Mission," and printed material and correspondence about the Mission and the missionaries.